Communicator in Chief

Here's an interesting note on the President that I thought was worth re-posting from Uncle Jimbo over at Blackfive.com. [Note this is not about the State of the Union but the surge speech from awhile back.]

If I could change one thing about George W. Bush's presidency, it would be to make him sound other than he does. This has handicapped him in every effort to convey ideas to all of us. His serious dis-ease with English has allowed his enemies to portray him as a dunce, and tonight's performance was about par. He made some very important points fairly well, but his mannerisms, accent and history ensured that the message will resonate poorly.

His most important point was reminding us that the power of the Commander in Chief requires that he refuse to care too much what the polls say. This is vital to any chance of maintaining a course toward victory rather than an acceptance of some flavor of defeat. It would be nice for say, Victor Davis Hanson to sit in for W and discourse on why Command is an exercise of power on behalf of others who may buckle under it's horrifying strain. We cede the authority to fight on our behalf to a leader, not a collection of town hall meetings or sadder yet the results of a poll showing the public's discontent with the reality of war. We were well aware that collectively we are a community with less staying power than necessary for the defense of something as fragile as liberal democracy. A plebiscite on just about any of our wars would have shut them down short of victory and left us all demonstrably less safe and free.

So instead we vested control of keeping ourselves safe in an executive, a Commander in Chief, who would consult and be supplied by Congress, but Command independently. That is why we look so hard at national security as a component of a possible President's profile. We are screening them to see if they are made of tougher stuff than the rest of us. We know we are weak and so the system is designed to compensate for that by requiring someone to accept that responsibility on our behalf. This person must act in ways that hurt now, that cause pain, suffering, and death because we know that collectively we would fail to do so. Fortunately we realize this and so we can vote our consciences and still retain our, oh so American, right to bemoan the lack of clear cut, simple victory.

We can not afford to leave Iraq in defeat and will not do so during George W. Bush's presidency, that is what he was elected for. We knew Kerry would run and we knew that was wrong. President Bush has done, commendably, what a Commander is supposed to. War is a series of disasters culminating in victory, the hard part is not caving to the price. W has not thus far and so victory is still possible.